A+ or MCSE

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As others have said id go for either A+, which is a vendor neutral certification and give you a broader instance of hardware and software, without being tied to Microsoft.

The MCDST is obviously Microsoft products, and its 2 exams, the 70-271 and 70-272, books from MSPress will help you, also use vmware (or just play around with XP) to get some practical experience, id go for XP as, at the moment, and for a while yet it looks like XP will be in the majority of corporations, and thus your skills will be more in demand.

With regards which to do first, thats up to you, some people would say A+ as you need to know whether a problem is hardware or software based (in the first instance), I would say that the majority of your diagnostics will be done within windows, so being competant there is a must, so equally its down to what you feel you need to learn more urgently, and also what jobs you are applying for may prefer A+ or MCDST (Keep checking job boards, and get applying as well).

Whatever you decide best of luck

 

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I've got a part-time employee who is working on her A+. I've paid for the books and I'm paying for the exams, but I'm not paying for any courseware, courses, or exam sims. I've also been giving her the dead kit that people drop off here for recycling and she's building working PCs out of the scraps. When she's got her A+ finished I'll pay for her MCDST (self-study books & vouchers). If she wants to go farther than that, she'll have to hire on with a larger company.

I feel it's the employer's responsibility to pay for this, but I'll be damned if I'm paying for courses. Having worked in the training industry both as a writer and a trainer I do not regard them as a good value at any cost.

 

WELCOME TO CERT FORUM! First and foremost you have to determine which path you are to follow so that you don't actually get things all mixed up and getting yourself confused. Below is a chart for the CERTIFICATION MARKETS & their associated VENDORS & IT SKILL SETS. Hope it helps you pick out a path that best suits you.

SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION: MICROSOSFT--- MCSE, MCSA, MCDBA

PROGRAMMING APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT: JAVA--- MCSD, SUN CERTIFIED JAVA PROGRAMMER/DEVELOPER

BASIC IT SKILLS: COMPTIA--- A+, NETWORK+, SERVER+, NET+

DESKTOP APPLICATION SKILLS: MICROSOFT OFFICE USER SPECIALIST(MOUS) CERTIFICATION

ENTERPRISE APPLICATION: IBM--- WEB SPHERE CERTIFICATIONS

DATABASE: ORACLE--- ORACLE CERTIFIED DBA

INTERNET SKILLS: CIW--- HTML/JAVASCRIPT, WEBSERVER etc

NETWORKING: CISCO SYSTEMS--- CCNA CCNP CCIE

E-BUSINESS SKILLS: EC-COUNCIL--- E-BUSINESS PROFESSIONAL, E-BUSINESS CONSULTANT.

 

I know you're trying to be helpful, Obinna... but someone who is wanting to get into IT should NOT pursue the majority of the certifications you've listed there.

 

Am totally with you on that. just trying to let the young man know what he is about walking into and if he critically studies that list he will understand that he should start with the one labelled BASIC IT SKILLS just like everybody already has advised him to start with. he just has to know that the IT WORLD is quite a maze(an interesting one) and one is bound to easily get lost and frustrated.

 

But... to do "System Administration", you say you need to take the path of MCSE, MCSA, MCDBA. This is incorrect... you need to work your way up in an entry-level job first. It's not as simple as getting the certification and then walking down that path.

Same thing with networking - you can't just walk down a "networking" path and expect to get a networking job. Sorry, the advice you gave doesn't say *anything* about what he is walking into, and is bound to make him MORE lost and frustrated.

 

Well i guess its a different ball game for you guys over there. I let you in on something am still an undergraduate in one of the Universities over here, actually studying Information & Communicaions Technology, will be graduating next year September and right now am currently with an IT school (NIIT) where I still receive training strictly on MCSE skills so I can actually take the exams when i feel that i can take them. do you have to work your way up in an entry-level job first before one can take A+ exams????
The thing about the whole thing here is that when i submit my CV with those certifications, definitely I will be called upon for an interview but here is the ACID TEST, you have to practically prove to your emplyers you actually have the skills and not just the "papers" and if you can, of course nothing stops them from offering you the job but if otherwise you will be thrown out with your papers. This is actually how it plays out here.

 

You don't have to do any job before taking any exams. However, it's recommended that you work in IT before taking some exams. The A+ is an entry-level certification... meaning, it's fine for people who have not yet worked in IT.

But you don't have the skills if you've never worked the job. Employers there may not have figured that out yet... but employers here certainly have. Without the real-world experience on your CV, you won't usually be brought in for an interview.

Sure, you have a bunch of theoretical knowledge... and you've likely messed with it in the lab... but until you've worked with it in a real-world environment with real-world users and real-world problems, you don't yet have the experience required to do the job. And you won't likely understand that until you've actually worked in IT for a bit and realize, "Wow, THAT is what he was talking about!"

So, you might ask, what's the harm in getting the advanced certifications? Well, those advanced certifications aren't required for entry-level jobs... and having them can actually make it HARDER, not easier, for you to get your first IT job because employers don't need to pay an MCSA, MCSE, or CCNA for an entry-level job. So if you can't get an entry-level job because you look overqualified, and you can't get a more advanced job because you don't have any experience, you suddenly become unemployable.

Again, it may not work that way in Nigeria... but that's how it works in most of the rest of the world... which is where 99% of CertForums' users reside. Following advice based on what works THERE would be absolutely detrimental for people in the US or UK.